Lansing wrestlers notch two wins on road

Thursday

Jan 9, 2014 at 9:18 PM

By JASON STRICKLAND

The Lansing High School wrestling team got the second half of the season started Wednesday with road wins against Lawrence and host Blue Valley Southwest.The meet started with a 54-27 win against Lawrence, helped by wins from 120-pounder Carsn Rhoads, 126-pounder Sky Summers, 138-pounder Cole Hoing, 152-pounder Michael Olsen and 195-pounder Caleb Ward.“There wasn’t anything really surprising there in the outcome,” LHS head coach Ron Averill said. “For the most part, I thought our guys wrestled pretty good against Lawrence. We had a few guys that weren’t quite ready for battle when they stepped on the mat. It’s kind of like getting those first time jitters out again after coming back from that break.”The Lions then got a 41-31 win against Blue Valley Southwest. “We knew we were going to match up pretty good with them, but there were a lot of questions marks on how the night was going to turn out,” Averill said.Olsen won by technical fall, and 160-pounder Juston Smith and 182-pounder Alex Diaz each won by pin.“Going into 152, I believe we were behind in points, but we knew Michael Olsen was going to be winning points for us,” Averill said.Smith’s win gave Lansing more points and Diaz capped it off with his pin. “We are just real proud of him (Diaz),” Averill said. “He was winning his match, but he was able to turn it into a pin in the third period to really seal the deal.”Averill said the team had the awareness to keep matches close even when they were losing to limit Blue Valley Southwest’s points.“We had several matches against Blue Valley Southwest that they held to a decision,” he said. “Some of those wrestlers that were held to a decision, it could have been a loss by 10, which is a huge difference.”Brock Budke lost 7-2 at 113-pounds and Summers lost 8-2 to keep them at decisions instead of major decisions.Averill said he saw progress and hopes it will lead to more wins. “Throughout the night, no matter how good anybody was, we saw areas of improvement for every one of our guys,” he said. “Hopefully what this will do is shine a light at the end of the tunnel, and say, ‘OK, now we have some goals and now we something to work for. We are back in the thick of the battle, so we need to be serious about what we do and take advantage of every opportunity.’”The Lions will compete at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Louisburg Invite.

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